All the world's her stage

Rajitha

Tamil cinema seems to have scored a coup of sorts, having roped in former Miss World Priyanka Chopra to play the lead in an upcoming film.

Thamizhan, the film in question -- for which Priyanka has already done the promo shoots -- will pair her opposite Vijay, the leader of the younger lot of stars on the Madras marquee.

Interestingly, Priyanka was slated to do a film under the direction of talented young director Thirupathiswamy. Who, at the time of signing the Miss World, was busy completing his Vijaykanth-starrer Narasimha.

However, the director met with a fatal accident as he was returning home late one night after editing work on Narasimha -- and things were quite for a bit.

Now, Priyanka is back in business. The project will also mark the return to production of Mani Rathnam's elder brother G Venkiteswaran, who earlier produced a few of Mani's films before shifting out of the big screen and concentrating on a plethora of serials and other programmes for television.